1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication terminal having a text-to-speech function and, more particularly, to a mobile communication terminal and method for producing different speech sounds for different screen objects.
2. Description of the Related Art
A portable terminal is a terminal that can be carried with a person and is capable of supporting wireless communication. A mobile communication terminal, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), smart phone, and International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) terminal are examples of such a portable terminal. The following descriptions are focused on a mobile communication terminal.
With advances in communication technologies, a user in motion can readily carry a mobile communication terminal and send and receive calls at most times and places. In addition to conventional phone call processing, an advanced mobile communication terminal supports various functions such as text message transmission, schedule management, Internet access, etc.
When a user accesses the Internet for an information search with their mobile communication terminal, searched textual information is displayed on a screen of the mobile communication terminal. However, the user must look at the screen until the user finishes reading the textual information. Further, owing to a small picture size of the screen, the user may experience difficulty in reading textual information on the screen.
A text-to-speech (TTS) function, which takes text as input and produces speech sounds as output, may help to solve this problem. For example, in a mobile communication terminal, the TTS function can be used to produce speech sounds from a received text message, an audible signal corresponding to the current time, and audible signals corresponding to individual characters and symbols.
However, a conventional TTS function for a mobile communication terminal produces speech sounds using the same voice at all times. Consequently, it may be difficult to distinguish display states of the mobile communication terminal based on the TTS output.